Michael Vanderbyl received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Graphic Design from the California College of Arts and Crafts in 1968. Today, he is Dean of Design at his alma mater (now known as California College of the Arts).

Since being established in San Francisco in 1973, Vanderbyl Design has evolved into a multidisciplinary practice with expertise in graphics, packaging, signage, interiors, showrooms, retail spaces, furniture, textiles and fashion apparel. A partial client list includes: The American Institute of Architects (AIA), America One/America’s Cup Challenge, Baker Furniture, Barbara Barry, Inc., Bernhardt Furniture Company, The Blackstone Group, Bolier and Company, California College of the Arts, The Walt Disney Company, Esprit, HBF, IBM, Janus Et Cie, Keilhauer, Luna Textiles, LXR Luxury Resorts, McGuire Furniture, The Mina Group (Michael Mina Restaurants), The Napa Valley Vintners Association, The Oakland Museum, The Robert Talbott Company, Rudd Vineyards & Winery, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), Teknion Furniture Systems and Waterford Wedgwood USA.

Michael Vanderbyl has gained international prominence as a practitioner, educator, critic and advocate of design. He has been a guest speaker at numerous design conferences including the Stanford Conference on Design and the International Interior Design Association (IIDA) Pioneers in Design in New York City and San Francisco. Additionally, he has acted as visiting instructor at Cranbrook Academy of Art, Art Center College of Design, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Universities of Cincinnati, Kansas and Washington. In 1989 Michael was the recipient of the Joyce C. Hall Distinguished Chair at the Kansas City Art Institute; in 1996 he was bestowed the award of Buckman Professor in Design Education from the University of Minnesota. Michael was selected as one of I.D. Magazine’s “ID Forty” for 1997 and the same year received the “Lifetime Achievement in Product Design” by the Pacific Design Center. He has also been featured on the PBS series “The Creative Mind.” In 2000, he received the highest honor awarded by the American Institute of Graphic Arts—the AIGA Medal. In association with their Calibre Awards in 2006, the Southern California Chapter of the IIDA honored Michael with their Lifetime Achievement Award.

In 1987, Michael was elected a member of the Alliance Graphique Internationale (AGI), an international design organization based in Zurich. He has served three terms on the Board of Directors of the National AIGA, most recently as President for the 2003-2005 term. He was also a member of the AIGA Education Committee and a founding member of the AIGA San Francisco Chapter. At SFMOMA, he holds a position on the Design Advisory Board and the Architecture and Design Accessions Committee. He is also a professional member of the IIDA.

Graphic and interior design organizations across the nation have invited Michael to address their membership or jury competitions. He has served as a judge for the Cooper Hewitt National Design Awards, the James Beard Foundation Restaurant Design Awards, the AIA competitions for interiors and architecture, the Industrial Designers Society of America’s (IDSA) IDEA99, the Annual Interiors Awards and premiere American graphic design competitions including the AIGA Communication Graphics Show, Communication Arts Design Annual, ID Magazine and the Type Director’s Club. Michael chaired the Presidential Jury for the 1992 National Endowment for the Arts Presidential Design Awards for the United States Government.

Printed work by Vanderbyl has gained recognition in every major design competition in the United States and Europe. His work is part of the permanent collections of the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, the Library of Congress, SFMOMA, the Denver Art Museum and the museum Die Neue Sammlung in Munich. Vanderbyl’s showroom designs have received five Big I Awards from Interiors Magazine and have won both AIA and American Institute of Interior Designers (ASID) competitions. His designs of Teknion’s Chicago showrooms won the 1997 and 1999 IIDA NeoCon Showroom Competition’s “Grand Award” and his design of the Robert Talbott, Inc. retail store in New York won the 1996 Monsanto DOC Award.

In the field of product design, Michael has also garnered distinction. His 1992 Harlequin lamp for Boyd Lighting earned an Institute of Business Designers (IBD) award and his Archetype lamp for Boyd Lighting won the “Best New Product” award at NeoCon 1997. Time Magazine selected Michael’s line of Esprit home textiles for its “Best of 87” Design Issue. Michael’s Archetype collection for McGuire Furniture was awarded the 2000 Pinnacle Design Achievement Award by the American Society of Furniture Designers. His furniture designs for HBF received three Best of NeoCon Gold Awards in 2000 and in 2001 he received another NeoCon Gold Award for a lounge seating collection designed for Bernhardt Furniture.

Michael’s work appears internationally in books and periodicals, including Arbitare (Italy), Direction (UK), Idea (Japan), Graphis, Print, Communication Arts, ID, Interiors, Metropolitan Home, Metropolis and The New York Times.